After seeing William off, Xia Hu-ren said to Qian, "Old Qian, you truly have the audacity to demand one hundred billion from him right off the bat."

"Is that a lot? I certainly don't think so. No one truly knows what the world was like six thousand years ago. That little brat Elena said she’d be happy living there—humbug! I think she’s living in a daydream!"

"How do you plan to resolve this matter? Can we even take it on?"

"I’ll have to go home and ask the wife first. They’re the experts in research; I’m completely unsure myself."

Xia Hu-ren nodded. "Very well, I’ll wait for your news."

Bidding farewell to Xia Hu-ren, I called He Yuqing, inviting her over to my place to discuss matters. He Yuqing’s voice sounded slightly languid, "My Boss Zhao, you haven't contacted me in ages. I thought you'd gotten a new secretary."

I chuckled, "How could I bear to? Even with a new secretary, I can't just discard a beauty like you."

"Stop joking. What can I do for you? I am receiving a salary every month, after all. It makes me uneasy if I don't work."

"Haha, aren't you doing research? That counts as work. Your friend Elena is in trouble, and she left a document for you. Come over to my place; we have something major to discuss."

"Mmm, I’m coming over right away."

"It sounds like you just woke up."

He Yuqing let out a long sigh. "Yes, I was thinking about you all night and couldn't sleep until now."

"Oh dear, why didn't you say so sooner? I was sleeping alone last night. If I had known, I would have gone to keep you company."

"Pah! Stop joking with me. Bye."

Since it was still morning, if I didn’t send out a notice, they likely wouldn’t be home. So, before heading back, I called the five women from the research team, urging them to return home immediately for a meeting.

When I took a cab and slowly made my way home, He Yuqing happened to arrive at my doorstep at the same moment, and we went upstairs together.

Zhao Fang exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, how did you two arrive together?"

I said deliberately, "Yeah, we were watching something together last night."

He Yuqing punched me lightly. "Don’t talk nonsense; you’ll make your girlfriend misunderstand. You, as the boss, are getting less and less serious. I always praise how talented you are to others!"

We all settled onto the large living room sofa. I smiled, "It’s normal for a boss to joke with his secretary. If we were being too proper, people would actually suspect something was wrong."

The women all said in unison, "You always have your twisted logic! Didn't you say there was something important? Hurry up and tell us; don’t keep us in suspense."

I took out the manila envelope William had given to He Yuqing. "This is the personal effect of the daughter of a magnate from Country M. Secretary He, please look it over first. I’ll explain the situation to you all."

He Yuqing opened the document with a look of confusion and let out a sharp scream. "This is Elena’s stuff! What… what happened to her? Why are you calling it her last effects?"

"She vanished from 'today,' so I have to call it her last effects."

"'Today'?"

I confirmed firmly, "Yes. This Elena actually developed a time-space machine. She went back six thousand years. Her father, the ship king of Country M, Toro the Red Dragon, wants me to bring her back. I asked for one hundred billion US dollars. Whether we earn this money is up to all of you."

Zhao Fang, speaking her mind, said, "Can’t we just take her time machine and go back again?"

I explained, "Her machine wasn't built well. It caused a massive explosion after only one use; it’s completely vaporized."

"This…?" The women’s gazes turned toward Xiao Hui. Since everyone’s current research projects were pressing, and time-space research wasn't the immediate priority, only Xiao Hui had any tangential involvement due to her work on the interstellar battleship.

Xiao Hui said, "Our current technology isn't mature enough; it’s still only theoretical. That's why I haven't made it public. The prototype for the interstellar flagship is complete, and internal equipment is being urgently installed. The actual performance metrics can only be determined after the Heart of Energy is installed on the battleship."

Yi Xiaorou asked, "If everyone works together, how much longer until we get the actual performance metrics?"

Xiao Hui replied, "At least a week. I’m not entirely sure, as I only have the theoretical foundation. This is the first time doing something like this; theory and practice often diverge significantly."

Zhao Fen hesitated, "I disagree with Brother Zhao taking this job. We don't need money right now. It’s best if everyone can just stay safe and sound."

Zhao Fen’s words met with unanimous agreement. As the eldest sister, she indeed had influence, and her worries were not unfounded. Imperfect time-travel technology could easily lead to disaster. This wasn't just weapon research where failure was negligible; if something went wrong during time travel, they could be stranded in the distant past, where no one could hear their cries for help.

Zhao Fen hugged me from behind. "Yes, Brother-in-law, you absolutely cannot leave us. How could we live if you did?"

He Yuqing coughed lightly to remind everyone of her presence. Zhao Fang’s gesture was somewhat intimate, which made He Yuqing blush with embarrassment. She said, "Everyone, look at the files Elena left me. They are filled with research on prehistoric humans. From these, it’s clear that the civilization level of prehistoric humans was in no way inferior to that of modern humanity."

"Really?" The women curiously took the files handed over by He Yuqing. They had never been involved in this matter before.

He Yuqing turned to me and said, "Now I am also certain that Elena went back six thousand years. In her research data, she repeatedly mentioned that six thousand years ago was a turning point in the destiny of prehistoric humanity. She also pointed out errors in the timelines of existing myths. She believed the Great Flood was definitively connected to the destruction of prehistoric humans, and this period was not between ten thousand and eight thousand years ago as previously speculated, but precisely six thousand years ago. What massive war erupted among prehistoric humans six thousand years ago, and what caused the Great Flood to arrive and wipe out the entire civilization? She wouldn't rest easy until these mysteries were solved."

"It’s rare to find such a stubborn woman."

He Yuqing smiled, "Elena is a beautiful girl."

"That makes it even worse. Who knows, maybe she's being assaulted by primitives right now. Primitives certainly won't treat her gently. She might even be roasted and eaten."

He Yuqing’s face turned bright red. She knew exactly what 'assault' by native tribesmen entailed better than anyone else present.

Xiao Yu Di finished reading the material the fastest, scanning it quickly from beginning to end. "Brother, I have a feeling that the matters of prehistoric civilization are related to the Heart of Energy and its three auxiliary energy stones."

Xiao Hui finished reading too. "I agree with Miss’s opinion. Although this event isn't recorded a hundred million years later, how many things in this world vanish from people’s memories? Even something as monumental as the Heart of Energy is unknown to humans a hundred million years later."

I frowned in confusion. "Didn’t those four energy stones come from the distant R-star system?"

Xiao Yu Di replied, "Yes, Father told me personally. As for how they determined they came from the R-star system, I don’t know."

I stated firmly, "It seems we really have to go take a look. Otherwise, if that Elena messes around in the past six thousand years, who knows if it might affect our current world."

"This…" The women were momentarily speechless. Whether changing the past could affect the present and future was something none of them had researched. If considered from the perspective of multidimensional space, altering the past should only add a spatial dimension and shouldn't conflict with the existing world. But in this world, what could truly be definitively settled?

He Yuqing tested the waters with me. "Zhao Qian, if there’s a possibility, please help Elena. I've known her for a long time and know she is a talented and good girl. She is different from those prejudiced people in Country M; she greatly admires the culture of our Great Dragon Country and even said she wanted to visit personally someday. I really don't want anything to happen to her in the distant past."

Zhao Fang spoke quickly, "Sister Yuqing, but what if Brother-in-law gets into trouble going back six thousand years? This isn't a joke. If he gets lost in the river of time, none of us sisters will have a life worth living."

He Yuqing was speechless. Given her status, she couldn't say more about such things. If she were my wife, she would certainly cling to me and beg, but since she wasn't, she remained silent.

I banged my hand down to make the final decision. "I never said I would go personally! First, we need to get our time-space machine working. If we can’t get this thing running, we can’t perform space jumps, right? And if we can’t do space jumps, we can’t navigate interstellar space, right? So this matter is critically important! Everyone drop everything you are currently working on and focus entirely on solving this!"

The five women replied in unison, "Then during this time, you are not allowed to go anywhere! You have to stay in the lab with us!"

And so, I went from a leisurely, indulgent college student back to being an all-around assistant. To be honest, I admired myself. There was no work in the lab that I couldn't handle, which made the five women even fonder of me. Being a B-class Superman wasn't just talk; I learned anything incredibly quickly, not at all slower than Zhao Fen and Zhao Fang’s learning speed.

After solemn and careful consideration, a week later, although the time-space machine hadn't been finalized, I gave William a definitive reply: I agreed to his request. However, all work would commence only after our time-space machine research was successful. As for research funds, I first demanded one billion from him. Money from people in Country M shouldn't be left on the table; besides, I was spending every day in the lab and deserved some compensation.

In the following period, besides conducting research, my wives and I debated who should be sent back six thousand years to rescue Elena. Everyone agreed on sending a robot. But as experiments proceeded, they discovered that only living cells could break through the temporal barrier; other objects could not traverse time-space smoothly.

This was a major problem. If this issue couldn't be resolved, I worried it would affect the space jumps of future battleships. Yet, events often unfold unpredictably. Soon after, Xiao Hui proposed a new theory: battleship space jumps and time have no conflicting relationship; the space jump can bypass the limitation of living cells. Therefore, these two lines of research should not be combined.

This was good news, as we no longer had to worry about the battleship's space jumps. But how to solve the problem of non-living objects being unable to achieve time travel? Did we really have to send a living person back six thousand years for the rescue? Who should be sent? An ordinary person certainly wouldn't do. If there truly were prehistoric Lunar people, an ordinary person sent there might not return with their life.

Sending a super-soldier for this mission? It wasn't impossible. However, the secrets of the prehistoric people had always attracted me. Was the moon really manufactured by prehistoric people? If the Great Flood occurred six thousand years ago, it was certainly the disastrous consequence of the lunar spaceship detaching from Earth. Thus, Earth must have undergone earth-shattering upheaval six thousand years ago. I couldn't possibly not go see it with my own eyes; it would be doing an injustice to myself.

As the experiment neared success, the women watched me more closely. One night, I finally 'escaped.' After a quick trip outside, I ended up at Hua Qingqing's villa. Hua Qingqing held me tightly, reluctant to let go. "Zhao Qian, don't mess around with that time-space machine. I'm afraid you'll personally go back six thousand years to find someone."

"You guessed right. I’ve been planning to do just that these past few days. I won't die in peace if I don't see the prehistoric humans with my own eyes."

Hua Qingqing clapped her hand over my mouth. "Hush, hush! Jinx! What do you mean you won't die in peace? You will never die! I forbid you from speaking like that again."

I embraced Hua Qingqing emotionally. "Qingqing, let's make love. I desire you so much. We’ve been dating for so long; I’ve touched every inch of you already. Can tonight be our wedding night?"

Hua Qingqing closed her eyes and hesitated. "Make love? I’m not quite ready yet. Your wife asked me the other day if I was a virgin, and of course, I proudly showed her."

"Hehe, Qingqing, you shameless thing, letting Xiao Rou see."

Hua Qingqing burrowed into my embrace, her face burning. "What’s wrong with that? We've done things even more shameless than that. Do you have a problem with it?"

"No problem. You're all my wives anyway; there’s no need to let the good fortune flow outside the family. Tell me about it."

"I won't! I’ll just make you anxious! Your wife is terrible; she’s always seducing me and actively trying to sell me on her husband. Hmph, she has no idea that her husband is already mine. Husband, teach Xiao Rou a lesson for me. Yesterday she came to the office to see me, and in broad daylight, she dared to get handsy with me, forcing me to push her onto the bed and strip her clothes off."

"I wondered why she went to bed so early last night—turns out you were having your fun with her."

Hua Qingqing opened her mouth and bit my ear. "Don't talk nonsense! I was just helping her relieve herself; her being too impulsive has nothing to do with me."

"Xiao Rou's breasts are now rivaling Susu’s—so it’s your continuous effort! Why don’t you fill yours out more?"

Hua Qingqing cupped her breasts. "No way! I like this size. Don't you like it, Husband?"

"I love it! Qingqing, I love you. Be my wife."

"Silly boy, of course, I'll be your wife. Do you think I’m still the stubborn Qingqing from before? Before I went to Africa, I told your wife I didn’t like you. Back then, I truly disliked your philandering behavior, but in Africa, I fell deeply in love with you. I realized I’ve fallen; I’ve fallen to the point where I intensely crave your wife’s teasing. Husband Zhao Qian, I love you too. Tonight I am yours. Love me."

Suddenly, the phone on Hua Qingqing’s bedside table rang urgently. Both of us froze. Hua Qingqing made a silencing gesture to me, probably afraid I might suddenly attack her, and reached with her other hand for the receiver.

"Who is it? Dad? Why are you calling me in the middle of the night? I was asleep."

"What? The Crown Prince of the Eagle Kingdom? Can’t he just find a doctor at the clinic? I’m already in bed resting."

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